Xmas in Lawrence

Look who I busted sneaking around in the living room:

Excitement:

I asked for a shirt from my gym, but they don't have a lot in stock.  So instead, Coop made me one.  I love it:

And then Coop spent three straight days putting together legos:

Xmas in Inman

Grandma and Ellen getting supper ready:

Coop's surprise (and glee!) at his Christmas gift:

This snappy blazer!

With Grandma:

Xmas in Lyons

 Watching movies with the cousins:

 And playing school:

I french-braided the girls' hair:

Supper with some of the cousins:

All of the kiddo generation at the Farm gathering:

The Burdettes and their grandkids (and dog):

My sisters and I:

Coop taking a break from the family to go shoot tin cans with his Grandpa and Dad.

Other pre-Christmas things

Gus and Eleanor came over and the kiddos made this marble run:

We saw Miss Linda, the cinnamon roll lady, at the holiday farmers market, so we spent a couple of hours working in her booth, helping to sell cinnamon rolls!

An army invasion, held off by nerf guns:

The presents Coop made for us at school came home with these decorations of things we each like:

 (netflix, wine, diet coke, the snake, sleeping)

(glasses, guns, cat, beer, iPad)

Getting ready for xmas

Coop and I enjoyed a Topeka production of It's a Wonderful Life:

New ornaments for this year:

Reading through the xmas books:

And the much beloved xmas village:

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed the 39th Annual Raintree Thanksgiving Feast, for which the kids make all of the dishes:

This year, Cooper recited a Thanksgiving poem that he had written:

For Thanksgiving itself, we hosted some law students (and one other law professor and her son) at the house for Indian food:

The Washburn Law crew:

November

One final Halloween / fall decoration:

Coop has taken to wearing ties lately.  Pretty cute:

And apparently cleaning windows!

And directly music on his iPad:

Gus and Eleanor

Cooper and I joined Gus and Eleanor for a sleepover one weekend.  Coop read to Eleanor:

And we took advantage of wonderful November weather to go biking.  Carrie took this picture and captioned it "One day, after grad school, when they declare their life-long love for each other, we will show them this picture:"

And this one: We all know who's in charge of this group:

We had lunch at Spin pizza, where Cooper ordered a giant meatball (and loved it!):

The start of November

Snazzy new shoes (with laces and not velcro!):

Dip cone.  Super messy:

Took Coop to the polls on election day.  Alas, no kids voting this year:

But we spent election night coloring in the electoral college map:

Until about 10pm, when I sent Coop to bed.... after the blue crayon broke:

Raintree was closed for a couple of days for conferences.  Coop spent the days at Baker with Alan:

Apparently, he had lots of "meetings" around campus, and also got promoted:

Halloween festivities

On Friday before Halloween, Raintree had its holiday party.  Kids wore costumes and carved pumpkins.  Coop took some accessories, so his pumpkin showed a window into Narnia, complete with a bench, snow-covered trees, and teddy bears:

The weekend before Halloween, he and I hosted a murder mystery party at the house for his friends.  He was Marvin the Millionaire, who was killed when a piano dropped on his head:

Decorating sugar cookies after solving the mystery:

On Halloween itself, Raintree was closed.  So John Wayne came to school with me:

He opened class with some John Wayne trivia questions:

Later that night, out for trick-or-treating with Darth Vader, and two Nikes, the goddesses of victory: